"The whole thing is about being a detective," says Benjamin Moore director of strategic design intelligence Ellen O’Neill as she spreads her case files (a stack of newspaper clippings, tear sheets, and various ephemera bound with a velvet ribbon) across a table at New York mainstay the Odeon. Each year O’Neill and her team of private eyes travel the globe on a top-secret investigation: to distill the ideas and imagery from design fairs, art exhibitions, and cultural happenings into a single color that sums up the contemporary zeitgeist. Considering they have more than 3,500 hues to choose from, it's no simple feat.

Sometimes the case is difficult to crack (last year's elusive Shadow required some cross-examination and 2016's Simply White caused somewhat of a stir). But the 2018 verdict—like so much else of the present moment—was unapologetically strong-willed. It transformed the National Mall into a sea of color at the Women's March in January, it starred in hit TV shows from the eerie Twin Peaks to the somehow eerier The Handmaid's Tale. It stomped down practically every runway in February and stampeded onto the streets come September. It clad the glowing interior of a concert hall in Stockholm's Royal College of Music. And it curved around the corners of Eero Saarinen's elliptical newly restored TWA lounge. There was no doubt about it: O'Neill (and just about everyone else) was seeing red. Well, Caliente, to be exact—a warm, enveloping hue that's easy to love.

Unveiled tonight amid Frank Lloyd Wright's elliptical swirls at the Guggenheim, Caliente joins a color trends palette of 22 other hues that tiptoe across the spectrum from pale pink to oxblood alongside agreeable neutrals (steely grays; a cool, celadon green) that play well with the bold stars. The campaign—shot in interiors both modern and traditional—prove you can use red to spice up just about any style. And if your taste doesn't land you on one end of the spectrum, in matters of design there's still room in the middle. We caught up with O’Neill once again for an annual recounting of her color hunt. This year it started with millions of pink-hatted protesters in Washington and ended back in the Big Apple, at MoMA.

Caliente colors an accent wall in this modern home.

John Bessler

AD: When did red first come onto your radar?

Ellen O’Neill: Well, the final exploration trip is usually to Maison et Objet in Paris in January. You know, just to make sure you’re getting the latest intelligence. This year I made the inevitable detour to go to the Women's March in D.C. the weekend before I went to Paris. Looking out on the mall you just saw this undulating wave of color—it was the pink spectrum, everything from shocking to dusty rose to red. It was incredible to see that largesse of color. At Benjamin Moore, we call paint a coating. And it was this coating of color as far as the eye could see. Look at the Times from that Sunday [she shows me a photograph in The New York Times Magazine, where pink and red hats and clothing have blurred into a cotton candy swirl] So I walked away from that and I was sitting on the plane going: Okay, right now, color is voice.

AD: What else did you see to back it up?

EO: I’ve just been stashing more evidence ever since—the red robes in The Handmaid's Tale, at the Emmy’s they all came out dancing in red, the Comme des Garcons show at the Met. Have you seen the "Items" show yet at MoMA? I was going crazy. There were so many red items—a hoodie, a sweatshirt, a leisure suit, this Issey Miyake garment made with a single red thread through a knitting machine. A red puffer coat from Moncler, the red bandana. Throughout the show, red was really acting as the signal, the stop sign. It's saying, Look at me.

Eero Saarinen's iconic TWA Terminal, recently restored.

John Bessler

AD: At what point did the collaboration with TWA come into the picture?

EO: Parallel to going through this process, I met with a former colleague, Tyler Morse of MCR Development, who was running the TWA restoration project. He was interested in having Benjamin Moore pick the standard red that would be used in the TWA Hotel's graphic logo. I kind of wanted to get into that building so I asked him if we could use the construction site as a shoot location. When I went to scout, we got into the sunken lounge and saw how striking red was in a room. It was different from looking at it as messaging. That space is so without boundaries. There are no 90-degree angles. Everything is elliptical, from the stairs to that Solari clock, everything is orbiting. That color really helped define the space; you can see boundaries, you can see the soft contours, you can understand the paths and the focal points. I was like, Okay, red is really directional. But can you live with it?

AD: But the atmosphere of an airport and the atmosphere of a home are quite different. Can you really live with it?

EO: So we started talking about famous red rooms—Diana Vreeland’s apartment, Carolina Herrera's apartment; at the Legends of La Cienega, Jeremiah Goodman had done all these illustrations of red rooms that were beautiful. I remember going to the new Ritz Bar in Paris and what that bar felt like. When we were in Milan and Paris all the Gucci stores were paneled in channeled red velvet—it's this cloak of luxury. You just felt like something important always happens in a red room.

AD: How would you describe Caliente? It seems a little less in-your-face than the primary red you chose for the TWA.

EO: Exactly. For TWA we picked the most primary, basic red. But for this red we were like, Okay, you can’t live in a shocking color. You’ve got to live in a warm, seductive tone. We spread them all out and we arrived at Caliente. It was very charismatic. It lured and it beckoned. It wasn’t shocking. It has almost a brown undertone, which makes it soothing. I kept thinking of red gallery walls in a stately mansion that really showcased beautiful oil paintings or ephemera. Those stately reds; intimate reds. That’s how we arrived at that specific colors.

Red walls enliven a blue-and-white bedroom.

John Bessler

AD: What makes a red room successful?

EO: I think the occupant must be very competent and not shy about making a totally bold statement. It's about layering reds, reds that clash. What did Diana Vreeland call it? A garden in hell? You can’t go bold and be shy at the same time.

AD: So it's about breaking the rules. But are there any rules for using red that you should try to follow?

EO: Well, I wouldn’t make it too optical unless it’s a space that maybe needs a jolt of energy—like maybe an office, a kids room, or a utility space. There’s something amusing about a gesture of red. I’m looking at that bright red piping [in the restaurant] and I’m like, Okay, this is happy. But I think in a residential space—a library or a dining room—you want a more intimate red.

AD: I think a lot of people are probably timid about using red. Are there ways they can ease themselves in?

EO: I always start with something like a focal point—a mantel, a bookcase, the inside of a bookcase. I’ve seen great examples of wainscoting or trim. There’s something about the gesture of painting the front door of a house red. It says there’s personality inside this house.

AD: I don't think there's much doubt that red is everywhere right now. What do you think it means?

EO: I think it’s voice. Red is a radical choice for a color in a room. But I guess it comes back to being bold, and you kind of have to be bold right now to break through the clutter of all this messaging that doesn’t maybe feel or sound right. Dark rooms can be very seductive. We discovered examples of the comfort red brings—the cocooning, the assuredness. If you’re out there and you’re afraid to turn the television on at night because you don’t know what’s coming, you’re in this secure red space in a way that’s grounding and enveloping. It’s a place to retreat and not just be out marching.

FOLLOW US

Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 5/25/18) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 5/25/18). Architectural Digest may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Your California Privacy Rights The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices